M3 Lee (Work in Progress)...PART 3 (4/17/2009)

Looking good Jesse. Nice to see your efforts at making the Acad kit more accurate.  One thing you might want to do is fill in the gap below the 75mm mantlet and the horizontal triangular fillet below it.  Look here:

You'll see how it was one large integral casting.  Hope this helps.  Keep up the good work

T26E4, 

Thanks, I hadn't notice that.  I actually haven't attached the upper hull to the lower hull yet but when I do, I'll fill that area in.

Thanks,

Jesse

Smeagol,

Yeah, I hear ya.  The seams on this kit are kind of lousy.  I was really disappointed with the fit of the kit especially since it's a new release.  I recently did Academy's CH-46 and that fit great.

Anyway, here is what I did to fix those seems.  First, I loaded each seam with Tamiya's Liquid Surface Primer.  Sometimes it took 3 or 4 applications.  After it dried, I used Testors Easy Lift Off Paint and Decal Remover to smooth out and remove excess primer.  There's still a slight seam there but I guess this is ok since the plates were riveted together.  If you look at my pictures, you'll see a gray tinge in some areas.  That's the residual primer.

It seems like Academy made this kit unnecessarily complicated.  Maybe they're trying to compete with Dragon in terms of complexity.  Just a thought...

I know this kit is more accurate than Tamiya's offering, but I feel like I'm "polishing a piece of poo" here.  This is kind of funny.  I was working on the kit at the kitchen table and my wife said she was going grocery shopping and asked if I needed anything.  I said "Yeah, some poo polish".  She just looked at me with that special "wife-look".

-Jesse

Karl,

Thanks for the offer but I already have the AFV Club tracks.  I've never really been a fan of the rubber band tracks.  I kind of enjoy the torture of filing and sanding 504 pieces to make two runs of tracks.  Since baseball session has started, I can watch a game and work on those mundane items in this kit.  (The Orioles are looking to sweep the Yankees today.  Go O's!!)

Have you guys seen all the individual rounds with this kit?  Yeah, they're fun to clean up too.

-Jesse

usmc1371 wrote:

Anyway, here is what I did to fix those seems.  First, I loaded each seam with Tamiya's Liquid Surface Primer.  Sometimes it took 3 or 4 applications.  After it dried, I used Testors Easy Lift Off Paint and Decal Remover to smooth out and remove excess primer.  There's still a slight seam there but I guess this is ok since the plates were riveted together.  If you look at my pictures, you'll see a gray tinge in some areas.  That's the residual primer.

Hey Jesse,

Denatured alcohol works great for doing this (at least the Australian equivalent, methylated spirits, which is >90% ethyl alcohol, does). Doesn't harm the styrene and you can wash your brushes out with it. I'll hazard a guess and say it's much cheaper than the Testors product too..

Smeago,

This is the product I'm referring too:

It's used to remove paint and decals.  I have never tried the Denatured alcohol that Phil mentioned but if he says it works, I'm sure he's right.  I've used ELO to remove lacquer, enamel and acrylic based paints with no damage to the plastic.  I use just a little bit on the end of a cotton swab and rub the area gently.

Phil_H,

Thanks for the info on the denatured alcohol.  I might give a try after I'm out of ELO.  I still have most a container left.

Constuctor,

Thanks for the heads up.  I haven't built the turret yet but I did start painting the interior.  Maybe now I'll finish the interior painting after I build the turret.  I've looking around online and I haven't found anyone who's completed this kit yet, interior and all.  I know Steve Zaloga built it but I don't think he added the interior.  He gave the a kit a B- rating.  I'd give it a C.  It's a real shame.  I really like the M3 also.  Oh well, just gotta keep on "keeping-on".

-Jesse

OK everyone.  I finished the inside of the lower hull.  I found the 37mm ready rounds don't all fit.  The rack holds 14 rounds, but the rounds are too fat to fit all 14 in there.  Interesting, Eduard's detail set replaces the rack with 9 slots. 

Thanks for looking and comments are always welcome.

-Jesse

Thanks, wbill76.  What do mean by "Academy got the round sizes wrong"?  You mean the scale dimensions of the rounds or the caliber of the rounds used in the kit.  I thought it might be a little silly to have 37mm rounds in the hull instead of the 75mm.  Plus, I can figure out how the crews got those rounds off the rack with it being behind the turret.  Must of been a tight fit.

-Jesse

Jesse,

I was referring to the scale dimensions based on your description that they wouldn't fit in the racks. There wasn't a lot of space in the turret for ammo so I guess they stuck it as close as they could!

WOW, Jesse! This looks awesome!! What a great interior!

You might not want to "go there", but I'd give the pristine white angles and edges a bit of drybrushing with some metallic grey, to show the natural wear that would occur--here's a pictureof how I did it on my Hetzer interior....

Just might give it a little more "used" look?

Thanks, Karl.  I actually used Model Master Steel, I just didn't do the dry brushing as heavily as you did.  The M3 wasn't in service very long, so wear and tear wouldn't be very heavy.  If you look in my pictures, you'll see the heaviest steel dry brushing on the transmission casing and the turret drive motor (I think that's what it is).  Also, the MM Steel is lighter than the Metallic Grey you used.

I do think I'll do some more dry brushing on the corners of the bulkheads though.

-Jesse

OH, ok, Jesse--you're right; I see it there!

Yup--that looks great! I must need glasses or something!?

Beautifully done interior!  To my eyes, it has just the right amount of wear for that "lived in" look without it looking trashed.

What are those steel tobacco tin-looking things on the right side?? Drums for a Thompson?

Constuctor,

Yeah, I'm worried about the turret basket fitting.  I haven't assembled it yet.  I already had to snap off and reglue the ammo basket on the right side.  It was getting in the way of the upper hull.  I'm beginning to really not like this kit.

Dre,

Thanks.  I believe those are for the Thompsons.

-Jesse

Hans von Hammer wrote:

I don't think they're Thompson mags, although I could be wrong.. But... Why would there be that many drum-mags for Thompsons and no ammo-cans (so far at least) for the 30-cals?

Judging by interior pictures, I believe extra ammo cans would be carried under the bow gunner/radio operator's seat.  Makes sense. The kit area is modeled solid but interior pics show shelves.  You can't see this area on the model once the hull is together.  Here's a pic of the bow gunner/radio operator's seat.  The seat in the middle is the driver's seat.  The shelves would have a seat on top of them for the radio operator: http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/david_lueck/m3_lee/images/m3_lee_57_of_86.jpg

There are some stowage boxes Academy missed.  I didn't bother scratchbuilding them since most of the interior won't be visible anyway.  For the same reason, I'm not worried about really detailing the interior.  I'll only have two hatches open, one side hatch and the drivers hatch. 

-Jesse

Well, that's where the confusion sets in fer me, pard... There isn't a bowgunner in a Lee, in the classic sense like a Sherman, meaning a ball-mounted .30 cal, just the coax and commander's .30s...

Been lookin' over this build...

http://www.ipmslivonia.org/ipms/Gallery/M3-Lee/KitRM3Lee.htm

And this interior

http://depothobbies.com/Verlinden/VER%201807%20M3%20Lee%20Interior.jpg

For my Tamiya Lees, plus various stuff to do a Lee AVLB scratch-build down the road..

Ok.  Maybe where stuck on something here because my references show two forward firing .30 cal machine guns mounted in the hull to left of the driver.  My reference is Steve Zaloga's book on the M3.  Here's the ports welded over:

http://data3.primeportal.net/tanks/david_lueck/m3_lee/images/m3_lee_03_of_86.jpg

There are 3 .30 cals on the Lee.  Two in the hull and one in the cupola.  In terms of the coxial, there is no .30 cal lined up next to the .37mm.  That tube you see in pictures is the stabilization counterweight for the .37mm.

Steve Zaloga also states that the tank carried 1,200 .45 cal rounds.  That rack on the model would hold 1,000 rounds in 50 round drums.  Remember, the M3 carried a crew of 6-7 men.  That's about 200 rounds a man.  Makes sense.

I sent you an email with pictures.  Just don't post them due to copywrite restrictions.

-Jesse

Looks like a coax in this one to me... To the right of the 37mm...

I did see a pic earlier of one crewman dismounting witha Thompson, but another one was totin' an Ought-3, lol...

At any rate, I ain't saying you're wrong bud... I'm just saying that the storage doesn't make a lot of sense... 9200 rds of 30-cal vs 1200 rds of .45... Lotta 30-cal ammo cans..

Yup, your right.  When we started talking about this, I thought I read there was a coaxial .30 cal.  But the picture I emailed you didn't show it.  It kind of through me off.  Here's Steve Zaloga's M3 clearly showing the coaxial .30:

http://www.missing-lynx.com/gallery/usa/images/m3acadsz_c.jpg 

But there are 2 .30 cals in the hull.  That makes 4 .30 cals carried in the Lee.

In regards to the ammo carried, I think we should remember that the US didn't know "jack" about mechanzied warfare when the M3 was designed, hence the "more machine guns, the better" concept.

-Jesse